Member Sign In

You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating indiv idual securities.

If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.

Crude Supplies Fall on Import Drop

The U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory release showed that crude stockpiles logged an unexpected decrease, as imports fell even though production climbed to its highest level since 1993. The report further revealed that refined product inventories – gasoline and distillate – rose from their previous week levels despite strengthening demand. Meanwhile, refiners scaled down their utilization rates by 1.2%.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Petroleum Status Report, containing data of the previous week ending Friday, outlines information regarding the weekly change in petroleum inventories held and produced by the U.S., both locally and abroad.

Crude Oil: The federal government’s EIA report revealed that crude inventories fell by 951,000 barrels for the week ending January 11, 2013, following a climb of 1.31 million barrels in the previous week.

The analysts surveyed by Platts – the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. , had expected oil stocks to go up some 2.5 million barrels. A sharp drop in the level of imports led to the surprise stockpile drawdown with the world's biggest oil consumer even as refiners reduced their utilization rates and domestic production continued to spike, now at their highest level since 1993.

However, crude inventories at the Cushing terminal in Oklahoma – the key delivery hub for U.S. crude futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange – was up 1.78 million barrels from the previous week’s level to hit a new all-time high of 51.86 million barrels.

At 360.30 million barrels, current crude supplies are 8.8% above the year-earlier level, and comfortably exceed the upper limit of the average for this time of the year. The crude supply cover was up slightly from 23.5 days in the previous week to 23.6 days. In the year-ago period, the supply cover was 22.5 days.

Gasoline: Supplies of gasoline were up for the eighth time in as many weeks despite an improvement in domestic consumption and lower imports. The rise in gasoline inventories could be attributed to higher production.

The 1.91 million barrels gain – compared to analysts’ projections for a 3.0 million barrels increase in supply level – took gasoline stockpiles up to 234.99 million barrels. As a result of this build, the existing inventory level of the most widely used petroleum product is 3.3% higher than the year-earlier level and is well above the upper half of the average range.

Distillate: Distillate fuel supplies (including diesel and heating oil) climbed 1.69 million barrels last week, slightly higher than the analysts’ expectations for a 1.6 million barrels build in inventory level. The rise in distillate fuel stocks – the sixth in 7 weeks – could be attributed to a pile up in the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) category, partially offset by stronger demand.

At 132.43 million barrels, distillate supplies are 10.5% below the year-ago level and are close to the lower limit of the average range for this time of the year.

Refinery Rates: Refinery utilization was down 1.2% from the prior week to 87.9%. The analysts were expecting the refinery run rate to edge down by 0.1%.

Resources

Client Support

Follow Us

Zacks Research is Reported On:

Yahoo

MSN

Marketwatch

Nasdaq

Forbes

Investors.com

Morningstar

Zacks Investment Research is an A+ Rated BBB Accredited Business.

Copyright 2016 Zacks Investment Research

At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1988 it has nearly tripled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +26% per year. These returns cover a period from 1988-2015 and were examined and attested by Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, an independent accounting firm.

Visit performance for information about the performance numbers displayed above.